Your first cookbooks

[Scotch]

I don't recall that my mother had any hardbound cookbooks. There was just her loose-leaf binder and tin box of recipes from family and friends, and some soft cover books she got at the supermarket and so forth. With my mom's help, I learned to bake from one of those, all of which I still have in my collection.

In my senior year in college, one of my roommates had a copy that he brought from home of what I think was the Betty Crocker Cookbook, or maybe it was the BH&G or Good Housekeeping. Whatever it was, we used it quite a bit, and I learned the difference between cloves and cloves of garlic as a result.

But the first cookbook on which my wife and I relied was the 1965 edition of The Settlement Cookbook, which I believe my MIL gave us when we were married in 1968. It's a treasure of American cookery:

We also had several of the Sunset Cookbooks very early on. We used those a lot, especially the Mexican cookbook -- still some of the best authentic Mexican and early California recipes around, IMHO.

We began collecting soon after we were married and now have more than 1,000 cookbooks.

 

[TheMetalChef]

My first cookbook was a Betty Crocker number, when I was 13. My mother bought it for me because I told her I was sick of cooking pasta dishes every night (which went on for months) because that's all I knew how to cook.

Then came The Frugal Gourmet and The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American - followed by McCall's Cooking School - and it all went downhill from there.

Worth noting, I only ever poke my nose in a cookbook to get ideas. I'll look at recipes online to get a vague notion of what something is supposed to look like, and then freewheel it.

My favorite times in the kitchen are when someone hands me a random ingredient and I improvise something on the fly.

 

[vyapti]

My first cookbook was an Italian cookbook by Sunset. I used that thing until it fell apart. I recently found it again in a thrift store and bought it again, for nostalgic reasons.

 

[bigdaddy3k]

My favorite times in the kitchen are when someone hands me a random ingredient and I improvise something on the fly.

Fun!!!

 

[kitchenelf]

The first cookbook I remember cooking out of was I think a Betty Crocker Chinese type cookbook. I was around 19. Caught the bug for sure with that one!

 

[Scotch]

My first cookbook was an Italian cookbook by Sunset. I used that thing until it fell apart. I recently found it again in a thrift store and bought it again, for nostalgic reasons.

Trust me, I know cookbooks as I own more than 1000 of them. The recipes in Sunset and Southern Living cookbooks (both published by Lane, if I recall correctly) are by and large very, very good, much better than most magazine cookbooks.

 

[Idiolect]

The Joy of Cooking and Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I'm delighted that "Julie and Julia" has boosted sales of the latter. It really does teach you to cook.

 

[Idiolect]

Oh yes and also Cook, My Darling Daughter by Mildred O. Knopf. My mom must have given it to me.

 

[CookNow]

Another Better Homes and Gardens beginning here. My mother taught me how to organize and cook a full meal when I was only 7 years old (while she supervised, of course).
Later on, I really got into using a small "Smokey Joe" Weber grill while in college, and picked up a copy of The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American a few years later.

 

[Cookbook Shop]

My mother gave me my first cookbook, a brand new first edition Betty Crocker’s Boys and Girls Cook Book when I was 9-years-old. So now you know my age… Anyway, I memorized that book and every picture, dreaming of the dishes I was going to prepare for my family… I learned to cook with that book...

 

[VeggieCook]

Grandmother's mouth words were my first cookbook

I was taught to cook by my grandmother when I was 7 years old. My first dish amazed my family and myself. Ever since, I have been cooking from time to time.

My first real cookbook was a Chinese vegetarian cookbook, which I used to cook dishes for myself, hoping to lose weight. However, it didn't happen.

Nowadays, I have two at hand and my cooking skills are well enough to feed two of us. However, memories are still leading me back to those old days often.

 

[Dixie_Amazon]

Mine was a Junior League cookbook called "Little Rock Cooks". It is out of print now but I keep looking for another copy, mine is beat up.

There was another one I can't remember the name of. It was a fat orange quality paperback and included techniques in it.

 

[Cookbook Shop]

Mine was a Junior League cookbook called "Little Rock Cooks". It is out of print now but I keep looking for another copy, mine is beat up.

Dennise,
I saw a copy of "Little Rock Cooks" on Amazon. <Dating back to 1972, Little Rock Cooks is a compilation of delightful recipes handed down from generation to generation. This cookbook has stood the test of time and can be found in kitchen cabinets throughout the country. Inducted into the McIlhenny Hall of Fame, an award given for book sales that exceed 100,000 copies.>
ISBN-10: 0960672400
Best regards, Cindy

 

[Dixie_Amazon]

Wow, thank you. Last time I looked there weren't any and certainly no new ones. I even wrote Little Rock's Junior League once and was told it was out of print.

Happy, happy, joy, joy!

 

[x7anooonah]

My first cookbook was one my mom got me. It was Martha Stewarts baking handbook. I still have it and its really what got me interested in baking

 

[CookwareFreak]

When I was a kid my favorite cookbook was the Charlie Brown Cookbook. My mom would make "Lucy's Lemon Squares" for me. I wish I could find a copy of it because I would love to have one. I also remember coming home from school and I would pull out the Joy of Cooking and make pancakes.

 

[Julio]

My first 2 cook books that I am going to purchase soon are artisan bread in 5 minutes & mastering the art of french cooking.

 

[jkgourmet]

The Joy of Cooking, given to me as a wedding gift in 1975. I dumped the husband, kept the cookbook.

 

[61Grampyjoe]

My first experience with cooking came from my grandmother's kitchen(we lived with her). She referred to her "Rumford Complete Cookbook" by Lily Wallace (1908,1919) which I still have(with her notes and clippings from the newspaper) and her copy of "Good Meals and How to Prepare Them" Katherie Fisher, Good Housekeeping Institute (1927) first edition. Her pencil script in the fly leaf "How to make rolls...) On page 194 (a chart of Icings) a note "good but don't beat too long...
I've only used the two of these to make 7 minute frosting and biscuits.
The rest of the time we use Paula's magazine or one of her cook books

 

[jkgourmet]

What a treasure! Thanks for sharing with us, Joe.